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He picked up his cell phone and call Harold.
“Yeah?” Harold asked when he answered.
“Harold, it’s Scott. I just saw the Times. Would you care to explain this to me, please?” He had his suspicions about how the news had been leaked, and while he didn’t want to point fingers or blatantly blame anyone, he was pretty sure that with not much more than a nudge, he could get the truth.
“Explain what?” Harold asked gruffly.
“Explain why I’m engaged to Jennifer Jones,” Scott said coolly, looking at the photographs on the page before him. It was their photograph from the Grammy’s. They had gone together and Jennifer had won four
Grammy’s that night. He had been so proud of her.
“Look, you made a huge mess knocking up two different chicks at the same time. Your sponsors are ready to walk, the owner of the club wants to let you go, and you’re scrambling to try to fix it all and not making any kind of headway. As your agent, it’s my duty to look out for you and fix all this crap that you’ve gotten yourself into. What we know for sure is that the public loves the idea of you and Jennifer together.
She has her own problems right now with that druggie ex-boyfriend of hers, and her camp is looking for a good way out too. I have talked to them. We’re all working our asses off here to try to fix the whole disaster so that the two of you can go on having good lives and lucrative careers, so don’t bust my chops over this!
Yes, I leaked your engagement to the paper. That son of a bitch reporter was only too glad to take my call. I’m going to clean his clock one day, that’s a sure bet.” His voice grew more tense.
Scott listened and let his breath out in a long, slow sigh.
“You need to think about what you have, Scotty. You have a crap load of money coming in from so many sponsors, and they’re good ones. Half the guys in the league would give one arm to have the sponsors that you have. You know that! You have a prime position with the Waves. You have worked your ass off for years to get where you are, and whether you like it or not, you were irresponsible, and it’s landed you in a huge mess.
You are about to lose it all, and for what? For nothing… that’s for what. You want to save what you’ve worked so damn hard for? You marry Jennifer Jones. That makes you the hero. That makes you the family man. You don’t marry her, and you can pretty much kiss it all goodbye.
If those two kids wind up being yours, then you can pay child support. No one cares about child support. Half the country or more pays child support. You won’t be a bad guy. You won’t be a womanizer. You’ll be settled down and you’ll be one of the hottest celebrity couples in the city, or heck, even in the world, if you play it right.
Look at David and Victoria Beckham. You could be like that. You would be adored. You would be wealthy. Your career would be set in stone. You and Jennifer are good friends. That wouldn’t be terrible. You get along. You would probably get along better than most married couples do. Think about that. Think about that really carefully, because you are playing with fire right now, and you might just implode. You got me?” he asked in a challenging voice.
Scott had listened to every word that Harold had said, and he had taken it all to heart, even though he didn’t like it. “Yeah. I heard you. I understand. I’m just not sure that it’s the right choice for me. Jennifer and I talked about just a little while ago. That’s a huge move for both of us. We aren’t romantically involved with each other and we never will be; it’s just not part of who we are.
We would have to forego being with anyone else if we got married. Neither one of us could have any kind of a love life, because we would always be in the spotlight, and if we were with anyone else, it would be an even bigger disaster than the mess we’re in right now.
I don’t know if I can do that. I care about Naomi. I want her. I want the baby she’s carrying. I could have a family with her, if I could stop screwing up for one whole day.” He rolled his eyes in chagrin.
“Well you can’t have both,” Harold shot back firmly. “You can have the money, the power, the fame, and the glory… you can have everything that you’ve worked your whole life to get, or you could have love.
If she takes you back. You don’t even know if it would work out with her. Didn’t you tell me not too long ago that she has walked out on you like four times already or something like that? You willing to risk that? You willing to let your whole career take a dump just for some broad who will probably walk out on you again? You better think long and hard about it, Scotty. You have way too much at stake her to take a chance like that. You better start thinking with your head.”
Scott frowned. Harold had a solid point. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. Jennifer and I said we would spend some time thinking about it and get back to each other.”
“Well you better think long and hard about it, Scotty, because we’re talking about the rest of your life here. Call me when you make up your mind.” Harold was finished talking, and he ended the call without saying goodbye.
Scott looked at his phone and set it down, returning his gaze to the images in the newspaper in front of him. He felt as if the entire world was on his shoulders, and there was no way it could get any heavier.
He didn’t sleep well that night, instead he spent hours tossing and turning until his exhaustion finally overtook him. Scott ran what seemed to him like every possible scenario through his mind, over and over, and hoped that somehow he would come up with a solution that was viable for him, but it came out the same way every single time.
He was going to have to make the hardest decision of his life. He would have to choose between having the career he had always wanted, or having the love and family that he felt he had found with Naomi. There was no in between. When he woke up in the morning, he felt as though he had woken up in a nightmare.
Chapter7
Scott thought nonstop about it the next morning, and when his phone rang and he saw that it was Jennifer, a muffled moan escaped him. He wasn’t ready for her call. He answered the phone with a quiet hello, and waited to hear what she had to say.
“Good morning. Did you sleep last night?” she asked, sounding as tired as he felt.
“Not much, no. What about you?” he returned, already sure of her answer.
“I didn’t sleep at all. I wish I could. I’m exhausted, but this is way too heavy on my mind.” She spoke with a gentle voice. “I’ve been going over and over it, and I felt like I just couldn’t find the right answer, and that was when I realized that I already had the right answer.”
He opened his eyes wide in surprise, as his heart picked up speed. Her answer was going to have an impact on him no matter what it was. “You did? What was it?” he asked her curiously.
